Welcome to the E46Fanatics forums. E46Fanatics is the premiere website for BMW 3 series owners around the world with interactive forums, a geographical enthusiast directory, photo galleries, and technical information for BMW enthusiasts.

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

Hi guys! It's been a LOOOOOONG time since I've made any posts on this forum, but this is an issue we need to address to everyone here -- to our customers, to those interested in the product, and especially to those who are disappointed that we haven't delivered.

Put simply, we dropped the ball, and we're sorry.

What happened? Well, it's complicated, but what it really comes down to is money.

As anyone who runs a small business knows, with a limited amount of operating capital, you have to make tough decisions about where you're going to use the money that's available to you.

If you've been paying attention over the last 8 years, you'll have noticed that many of our biggest selling products continually go on backorder. This is despite the fact that we've increased the amount of inventory on hand 6 or 7 fold from when we started, purchasing as much as our budget will allow.

When we started the amplifier upgrade project several years ago, we expected that at some point in the near future we would have "enough" inventory for our core products to meet demand, at which point we could redirect our capital resources to the amplifier upgrade project.

That day still hasn't come.

If we are going to continue to grow and thrive, we have to not only make great products and deliver great service; we also have to make strategic decisions which will be in the best interest of the business long-term.

And as a business, when you don't have enough inventory to fulfill the orders you already have, it just doesn't make sense to shift resources away to a project which has an unknown return on investment and an unknown timeframe for completion.

This has never been a question of our willingness to invest in R&D or a question of the complexity of the project. It's a question of resources.

All that said, we are CONSTANTLY increasing our operating capital, and we are hopeful that at some point in the near future, we'll have enough capital to keep enough inventory to fulfill everyone's seemingly insatiable demand for our current products, at which point we can use some of our limited resources to make this amplifier project a reality.

In other words, this project is on our roadmap, and it's not a question of IF it is coming. It is a question of WHEN. I don't have any firm timeframes for you, and we aren't going to give you any. We learned our lesson.

I will say that we have recently restarted development on this, but that is ALL that I will say. No timeframes, no estimates, no details. It will be available when we can make it work as a business.

Thank you guys for your patience and your understanding. We're sorry we've disappointed you, but we hope that when the final product is available, it will have been worth the wait.

as much as it is nice to hear/read, words are cheap....(as the old saying starts)
this has extended beyond ridiculous in terms of waiting and, dare i say, false statements in the past.
at this rate, my car will be done before this amp comes out....

As you pointed out, words are cheap, which is why I haven't made any statements regarding the status of the project or an expected timeframe. We aren't going to make any more promises we aren't 100% sure we can keep.

Regarding previous statements being false, that's just not true. Aside from the fact that this is a capital-intensive project, both to engineer and purchase product for, we've also had to scrap an entire design and start fresh again. Our initial version didn't meet our standards. But, we should have known better and not said a peep until we were sure the project was done and ready for launch.

i am not upset actually, so i think you misunderstood my reply post. running businesses that regularly demand large investments, i can relate.

i was not saying that your previous statements were false; however, there were "promises" made in the past by other folks at bsw, and they were not fulfilled. that calls into question the validity of supposed updates that were made in the past as well.

i am not challenging your previous lengthy post.

i have been happy with your other products. furthermore, i will most likely wait it out to get this amp if it is released sometime soon and if i do not find a better option.

I won't get my hopes up....but I'd be lieing if I said I wasn't excited to hear from BSW. I was just thinking today how nice it would be to have a decent amplifier to my stage 1. If I still have my e46 'when' you guys drop this amp on the market I will undoubtedly purchase it.

I have to say it's unfortunate that everything fell thourgh like this but at least bsw is keeping in touch. I was looking forward to the amp but disappointed like everybody else. I hope it comes out in the near future before I dont have the car any more

As you pointed out, words are cheap, which is why I haven't made any statements regarding the status of the project or an expected timeframe. We aren't going to make any more promises we aren't 100% sure we can keep.

Regarding previous statements being false, that's just not true. Aside from the fact that this is a capital-intensive project, both to engineer and purchase product for, we've also had to scrap an entire design and start fresh again. Our initial version didn't meet our standards. But, we should have known better and not said a peep until we were sure the project was done and ready for launch.

Won't happen again.

I know I do not have a lot of clout on the forums as I am a newbie to them but..... I think you may be missing the "need" of most the forum members including myself interested in this product. I am a small automotive business owner myself and can completely understand the troubles you have run into. However....

Here is the problem, in order for BSW to correct their blunder consumers NEED a projected time frame. Even if you guys at BSW want to play it safe and give yourselves extra time (if you expect the project completed in 6 months say 1 year, etc...) Many people including myself have been holding out on upgrading their audio system. However.... I am finally at the point where I need to make a decision if I proceed to build a system w/o the amp or if I wait longer for the project. Those of us in limbo NEED some kind of guidance. For instance I am willing to wait 6-9 months but am in no way willing to wait 2 years.

I know I do not have a lot of clout on the forums as I am a newbie to them but..... I think you may be missing the "need" of most the forum members including myself interested in this product. I am a small automotive business owner myself and can completely understand the troubles you have run into. However....

Here is the problem, in order for BSW to correct their blunder consumers NEED a projected time frame. Even if you guys at BSW want to play it safe and give yourselves extra time (if you expect the project completed in 6 months say 1 year, etc...) Many people including myself have been holding out on upgrading their audio system. However.... I am finally at the point where I need to make a decision if I proceed to build a system w/o the amp or if I wait longer for the project. Those of us in limbo NEED some kind of guidance. For instance I am willing to wait 6-9 months but am in no way willing to wait 2 years.

While I know your point, I also know that they are unlikely to be willing to provide a timeline.

From their perspective this amp has been a fiasco now. It is a blot on their reputation as a company and it has already hurt their credibility, they dont want to risk something going wrong and hurting their reputation further.

Until now we have heard story upon story of "just a little delay" and "small issues" and "testing" so the community is unlikely to believe that any future announcement of a delay is legitimate. The amp has been a huge public relations nightmare for them. You run a small business and know that reputation matters, they burned a lot of that reputation capital in the community with the amp project and recovering that will NOT be easy. It takes a lot of work to build and more to re rebuild a good reputation, and they have taken a big hit to that already. It is unlikely they will want to risk further damage by putting a date out before it is VERY close to done.

While I know your point, I also know that they are unlikely to be willing to provide a timeline.

From their perspective this amp has been a fiasco now. It is a blot on their reputation as a company and it has already hurt their credibility, they dont want to risk something going wrong and hurting their reputation further.

Until now we have heard story upon story of "just a little delay" and "small issues" and "testing" so the community is unlikely to believe that any future announcement of a delay is legitimate. The amp has been a huge public relations nightmare for them. You run a small business and know that reputation matters, they burned a lot of that reputation capital in the community with the amp project and recovering that will NOT be easy. It takes a lot of work to build and more to re rebuild a good reputation, and they have taken a big hit to that already. It is unlikely they will want to risk further damage by putting a date out before it is VERY close to done.

Call me crazy but the best way for them to gain back some respect would be to give a date and actually stick to it. Thus providing their followers with something real to plan for.